Brave New World
by PokeSpeBanette
Summary: Five years after the Battle of Oblivion, the Gatekeepers of the past have found a way to send Matt and Scott back into their own world. Unfortuntely, this has some rather . . . dangerous results.
1. Chapter 1

Renny: Okay so to understand the general plot, I've gone off from what Anthony Horowitz has laid down in canon for us _Po5_ fans. It's been implied that there can only be one set of Gatekeepers in the same world, as shown when Jamie replaces Sapling. So it stands to reason that, in the dreamworld, the Gatekeepers of the modern world (Scarlett, Jamie and Pedro) never meet their past selves, and the Gatekeepers who replaced Matt and Scott (Matt and Flint) never meet their future selves or see their friends again.

Matt: But you're changing that?

Renny: Yup. In this world, or at least in my headcanon, all ten of the Gatekeepers can exist in the dreamworld at the same time, so they can all meet their past/future selves and still see their friends at the same time. So basically, my post- _Oblivion_ has seven of the two sets of Gatekeepers permanently in the dreamworld, while the other three are still alive.

Matt: And for this plotline to work, you're cutting them off from the dreamworld?

Renny: The dreamworld regained colour after Chaos was beaten right? That happens here too, but the living Gatekeepers can't access it. I won't explain why because I can't honestly explain it myself.

Matt: That makes just about as much sense as anything else in the series, so that fits perfectly.

Renny: Awesome! Can you do the disclaimer, Matty?

Matt: . . . Renny doesn't own the _Power of Five_. And please don't call me that.

Renny: Make me.

Matt: *raises up a giant ship out of nowhere*

Renny: Convincing argument. On with the show! *runs off* YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIIIIIIIIVE!

 **OOOOOO**

"We think we may have found a way to send the two of you back."

Matt wasn't sure what prompted his past self to start looking into the concept. He wasn't sure how the other boy had gotten his friends, the other Gatekeepers of the past, to help out either.

But either way, it seemed that- after almost three years of searching- they'd found the answer.

"How?" Matt asked, standing up. He and Scott- actually friends now that they were, well, dead- were sitting on the beach trying to find some weird shell that Scott had seen a couple of hours ago, but to no avail as they hadn't found it yet.

Now it seemed like they might never find it.

"Well," his past self began. "Scar seems to have found something in the library. It's an old book, near enough to the back of the entire structure- the entire room's filled to the brim with books that might date back to before even our time."

"How is that possible?" Scott wondered, also standing. He dropped the black and white shell he had in his hands, and it scuttled away on pink legs. "I thought your people didn't have books back then."

"We did." Matt's past self- who was calling himself by his old nickname, Matteo, to distinguish himself from Matt- shrugged. "Just not many, and a lot of people couldn't read anyway, so they were useless to us."

"Besides," Inti added from beside him. "Many books were burned or destroyed. It appears that we may have found some that date back to times before the first coming of the Old Ones."

Matteo nodded his agreement.

"Fair enough, but how does this help us get back?" Matt frowned, crossing his arms.

"Like I said, Scar found one that might be able to tell us how to actually do it." Matteo explained. "It doesn't have a title, and the language is old- in fact, even the Librarian had trouble translating for us."

That was strange. The Librarian could understand, speak and write every single language ever created (even dead ones, like the past Gatekeeper's one) fluently. But if he had trouble with one language, well . . . maybe that meant there was a time before even the Librarian. Matt somehow found that impossible to believe.

"Scar and the twins are waiting for us in the room she found it in." Matteo gestured in the general direction of the dreamworld's library. "Come on, we shouldn't keep them waiting any longer."

With one last, slightly mournful look at the beach, Matt and Scott followed the two past Gatekeepers.

They found the other three waiting for them in a room that Matt had never seen before in the library, with the Librarian sorting through the books. They did indeed look incredibly old, some with actual frayed edges, and those open on the table were written in a language Matt had never seen before in his entire life or death.

"Hi guys!" Sapling grinned. Matt almost did a double-take when he saw him- Sapling was sort of almost literally buried in books.

"Dude, get out of there." Scott obviously wasn't amused.

"But my book fort is nearly complete!" Sapling cried.

"I gave up three hours ago, don't try and stop him." Flint sighed.

"So where's this book?" Matt asked, sitting at the table and deciding to ignore Sapling's weirdness.

"Right here, Matty." Scar held up one of the oldest books on the table, open on some page that had several strange drawings that looked even more twisted than the ones of the Old Ones.

"Don't call me that." Matt said absently, taking the book. He studied it and turned it over, looking at the back, but there were no words there- nor was there anything on the spine or the front, which struck him as strange.

Even the books from the past Gatekeeper's times had titles of some sort.

"See?" Inti said. "The translations are in those notes there," Pedro's past self gestured towards a pile of papers next to Flint. "If you want to read them."

He hesitated.

"Do you want me to do it?" Scott suggested.

" . . . Yeah. Sorry." Matt muttered.

"It's okay, really."

Matt wasn't actually that good at reading, despite what most people would think. As of his failed school years, he could just about barely spell words (one time he'd somehow became convinced that 'cat' was spelt as 'kat') and reading was another story entirely.

Scott didn't laugh at him. Nor did any of the other Gatekeepers, as Matteo was pretty much illiterate as well.

"Wow." Scott said after a few minutes.

"What is it?" Matt asked, leaning over. He tried reading the notes himself but he got up to the tenth word and gave up, looking up at Scott instead.

"This actually changes everything!" Scott cried, putting down the papers. "It sounds sort of complicated, but if we can figure it out, maybe it'll be simple enough for- . . . um."

"You can say it." Matt told him.

"I don't wanna offend you." Scott winced.

"Simple enough for us to understand?" Matteo spoke up. "Seriously, Scott, it's true anyway."

Scott sighed.

"Does this mean I can crack about your intelligence without-"

"No." Matteo said over Scar.

She slumped back, sulking. "Why do I never get to have _any_ fun, I swear . . ." Scar muttered.

"You can join me in my quest for the biggest book fort in the world!" Sapling suggested cheerfully.

"The _only_ one." Flint told him.

"That just makes it more awesome."

"Maybe later, we can look through the 1700s section for the walls or something." Scar said.

"Oooh they're bound to have some good stuff." Sapling grinned. "They started on a leap year, did you know that?"

"Shut up, Sapling." just about everyone said.

 **oooo**

A few days later, they'd finally managed to figure out the spell (Flint insisted it wasn't one, but everyone else kept calling it that) to send Matt and Scott back to their own world.

Scott looked around himself and Matt.

They were on the beach again, but this time they were standing under a shady bunch of trees that he didn't know the name of. Probably something ancient and weird. Or modern and weird. Whichever.

He and Matt were surrounded by strange symbols that Scar and the twins had drawn up with some supposed magical blue charcoal. Most of them surrounded him and Matt, but others had been drawn onto the trees nearby, and each of the past five Gatekeepers took up their places in front of one tree each.

"Alright," Matteo said. "The theory is that, with our power combined with yours, directed by the symbols, the two of you should be sent back to your own world. Keep in mind that it's been five years since the Battle of Oblivion, and neither of you have aged at all since then."

"And the living Gatekeepers have." Scar added, from where she was standing in front of a tree with a blue pentagram symbol. "So, basically, your twin's gonna be twenty and you're gonna be fifteen."

"Paradox!" Sapling cackled.

"Shut up, Sapling." they told him.

"Spoilsports." he muttered.

"But he is right, it's gonna be a paradox." Matteo said. "It'll also be the first time that any of the Gatekeepers have been different ages, not counting different days of birth. And we also don't know the state of that world either, and a lot can happen in five years- that was demonstrated when you skipped ten years."

"Things basically went to hell with one, right?" Matt asked.

"Basically. Anything could have happened." Flint agreed. "Are you two ready?"

"Just one question." Scott held up a hand. "And I'm not saying I don't want to do this, but why? Why'd you all get this interested in sending us back, to the point that you'd spend three years looking for the right spell?"

"Ritual!" Flint cried. "It's called a _ritual_!"

"There have to be five Gatekeepers." Matteo answered, ignoring Flint. "I know it seems somewhat pointless now that Chaos has been banished again and the Old Ones are gone, but . . . there has to be five. The living ones have been cut off from the dreamworld, so they can't even visit us- or, more specifically, you two. This is more or less a precaution just in case something happens and the world needs the Gatekeepers again."

"But," Scar broke in before Scott could say something he would probably regret. "We also think that it's best for all five of the modern Gatekeepers to be together because, well, you _belong_ together. Not just because your powers grow stronger with each other, but I think you need each other emotionally too."

Scott didn't say anything. He couldn't, because who could say something to a reason like that?

"Alright. I'm ready." he said. He glanced down at Matt, who nodded silently.

"This has never been done before, so we're not sure if this'll hurt." Matteo warned them.

"But the good news is that if it fails, you'll end up back here and we can try again." Sapling shrugged.

And that was true, so no one told him to shut up. This time.

"Alright then, give it everything you've got!" Matteo called.

The past Gatekeepers stretched out their hands as if they were trying to create some sort of circle, but they were all at least a couple of feet away from each other, so the circle wasn't complete.

Even so, Scott could feel the power start to flow from each one of them- and he and Matt reached out and gently touched fingertips, as a way to anchor themselves and make sure they ended up in the same place when they got back.

Not if. When. Scott refused to allow himself to think that anything else could happen.

He and Matt added in their own power, and finally the blue symbols arround them started to glow softly. Even if the daylight, the glow was easy to see, and awe-inspiring for Scott.

The world started to shake like it was trying to break apart.

It was gentle at first, so much so that Scott didn't notice it. But when it got more violent, he glanced around. No one else seemed to have noticed it, but Matt was looking like he felt- confused.

Was this meant to happen?

And then the pain started.

Scott fell to his knees and screamed, hearing Matt doing the same thing beside him. Despite the pain they kept their hands together, now gripping each other in fear of letting go and ending up on seperate parts of the world.

"HOLD ON!" Matteo shouted through the rumbling. It seemed that the past Gatekeepers had finally noticed it. "JUST HOLD ON!"

"H-hold . . . on . . ." Matt whispered.

Scott glanced at Matt and- almost involuntarily- got a flash of an old memory from Matt. Richard, taking hold of Matt and telling him to "hold on" as they jumped into a freezing river so they could escape somewhere Scott didn't recognise.

Matt gained strength from that memory. He was gonna see his best friend, his big brother, again.

Scott gritted his teeth and thought of Jamie. He'd turned on the Old Ones at the last minute and had broke the seal on the door to help his twin brother win the war. He wanted to see Jamie again.

The pain somehow changed, to become just a dull throb in the back of Scott's mind.

And then everything went black, and the only thing left in Scott's awareness- his entire _mind_ \- were the glowing blue symbols and the past five Gatekeepers telling him to stay safe.

 **OOOOOO**

Renny: I wasn't actually intending to cut this off so early, but then I realised that the next scene I have in mind wouldn't work with the last one we just had, so yeah.

Matt: . . . That was an intense first chapter.

Renny: Not as intense as some things I've written. Next chapter's gonna be longer, I swear. Read and review, people! Even if most of you are in the shadows . . .


	2. Chapter 2

Renny: Because of a picture I found on the internet, it's now my personal headcanon that Matt is the second smallest Gatekeeper. Forget the fact that the book says Scarlett's small. Heights basically go like this for me- Scott's the biggest, followed by Jamie who's a few centimetres smaller. Next is Scarlett, who _I_ see as fairly tall. Then there's Matt, who's sort of . . . well, he's been starved and beaten most of his life, so it makes sense that he's pretty small. Same goes for Pedro, who's the smallest.

Matt: Of course, in this fic that changes, doesn't it?

Renny: Yup- heights for this fic are as follows; Jamie, Pedro, Scarlett, Scott and then Matt as the smallest. I like to think that Jamie and Scott (had he aged at all) would be the sort of men who would be like six foot something and Pedro would get a growth spurt at the last minute and be like an inch or two smaller. Scarlett would continue to be a tall person. Matt would pretty much not grow that much and end up being the smallest, for which everyone else would tease him for.

Matt: You really like making your favourite characters as small as possible, don't you.

Renny: Whatever gave you that idea? Anyway, readers who actually bother with the ANs, you all know how the height system works for this. Richard is, of course, still the tallest- although Jamie comes close to him now. Alright, disclaimer before I end up rambling!

Matt: Renny doesn't own _Po5_.

Renny: On with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

 _\- ott!_

 _Scott!_

 _\- hear me?_

 _WAKE UP DAMMIT._

Scott jolted awake and sat bolt upright.

 _Oh, good, you're actually alive. What the hell's going on?_ someone demanded.

Was that . . . Jamie?

 _No you idiot, it's Sapling. Get a grip,_ Sapling scoffed.

"Didn't it work?" Scott asked, and then jumped at how loud his voice sounded. The area around him- some sort of forest with snow-covered trees and bushes and stuff- had been silent. Until he'd spoken, that is.

 _Well, you're not here, so it probably did,_ someone else said.

"Matt?" Scott frowned. He got up and glanced around. He was alone.

What the hell was going on?

 _Matteo, actually, and I have no idea,_ Matteo said. _Do you know where you are?_

 _We can't recognise anything, but that'd probably be because we're thousands of years old,_ Scar spoke up.

"Yeah, that'd do it- wait." Scott paused. "How can you see this?"

 _We're in an . . . observatory, I guess,_ Inti told him. _Only it doesn't have a telescope sticking out of a hole in the wall, and instead of a hole, there's a screen._

 _Showing us what you see,_ Matteo finished.

"Well damn. Does this mean the ritual didn't work?" Scott asked. He glanced upwards. It was night time, so maybe one of the past Gatekeepers could pinpoint his location using the stars.

 _Well . . . we're not actually sure about that,_ Matteo said hesitantly.

"But you just said-"

 _I know what I said,_ Matteo sighed. _But it looks like you still have some sort of connection to the dreamworld. You've still got one foot in the grave, as it were._

A couple of seconds passed.

 _Don't even try it, Sapling,_ Scar snapped.

 _Why do you keep bashing me, seriously?_ Sapling cried.

"Right . . . where's Flint? I haven't heard him yet." Scott said.

 _Uh . . . well, it seems that we can only talk to you in this room, and we only found that out because Matteo sent Flint off to some room down the hall to check it,_ Inti explained. _I can still hear him screaming at you to talk back or something. In . . . more colourful words._

"Perfect." Scott muttered.

 _I'll go and get him back,_ Matteo said.

 _Can you see Matt anywhere?_ Scar asked a few seconds later.

Scott shook his head.

 _Oooh trippy._

 _Shut up, Sapling._

Scott ignored them and started to wander around the snowy forest. Judging by the cold, it was probably winter- but then again, for all he knew, he might have ended up in fucking Alaska or something. Didn't they always have snow, no matter what the season?

 _\- not exactly my fault he didn't hear me!_ Flint snapped, as he presumably came back into the room.

 _Well you didn't need to start insulting his pride, seriously,_ Matteo told him. _There is a line, and we don't cross it._

Flint scoffed.

"Can someone try and find out where I am? Y'know, using the stars or something?" Scott interrupted before the fighting could get worse.

 _I'll get the Librarian!_ Sapling shouted.

 _I could have sworn I was the leader and not some bystander,_ Matteo muttered. _Get back here, we can find the Librarian when Scott finds Matt._

"People make their own decisions." Scott told him.

 _Yeah but still._

 _Stop being a baby, Matty!_ Scar called.

 _WILL YOU STOP CALLING ME THAT._

"Ow!" Scott cried. He gripped his head in pain. "Could you not shout, please? I can hear literally everything you're saying."

 _. . . Sorry._

"Alright, I'll walk around and try and find Matt. We were still holding onto each other when I blacked out, so he should be around here somewhere, right?" Scott asked.

 _Yeah,_ Inti said. _Unless his hand got ripped off or something._

 _You give him a_ hand _when you see him!_ Sapling laughed.

Everyone groaned.

 _That was comedy gold, people! Not my fault you don't understand the meaning of 'humour',_ Sapling muttered.

How did these people beat Chaos, again?

 _Luck and wits,_ Matteo told him.

Oh. They could hear everything he was- okay, nevermind then.

 _I think we can cut off for a while,_ Inti suggested. _Just to give you some peace. When you find Matt, we'll open the link again._

"And how're you gonna close it?" Scott asked. " . . . Wait a second, is it just me the link works with? What about Matt?"

Several seconds passed in silence. Scott stopped and nearly looked around, but then he remembered that they were- technically- only in his head.

 _No,_ Matteo eventually said. _It's just you. If there was a link with Matt, we'd have seen or heard something from him by now I guess._

"Perfect."

Something seemed to click in his mind.

And then there was pure silence, broken only by the sound of Scott's footsteps crunching in the snow quietly. Looked like they could break the link after all- but could they still hear his thoughts? Could they still see what he was seeing?

None of his questions would be answered right now, so Scott just kept going.

He wasn't sure how long he walked for, but all he knew was that the scenery didn't change that much. It was still cold and it was still snowy, and it was still night time.

At least he wasn't walking for hours and hours.

And then he heard screaming.

Scott put his hands over his ears, crying out quietly- the screaming was so loud it pierced right through his skull.

 _Scott!_

Oh, they'd turned on the link.

 _SCOTT!_ Matteo was shouting. _That's Matt!_

"How can you- gah- tell?" Scott winced.

 _I . . . I think I'd know my own scream, Scott._

" . . . O-oh." he swallowed. Of course Matteo would know. He'd had a year to get used to it, after all.

 _You need to find him, now!_ Scar cried. _For all we know, he might just be panicking, or something might be attacking him, or-_

 _Scar, calm down!_ Flint told her.

Scott took his hands off his ears slowly. The screaming got louder, unmuffled by the barriers his hands had created, but he ignored the pain and turned in a full circle slowly.

 _What are you doing?_ Inti asked.

"Whichever way it's- ah- louder, that's where he is." Scott said.

He turned, and the screaming seemed to get louder from one direction. Despite every single instinc telling him to run away and save himself from going deaf or something, Scott started off in that direction.

 _If we could make it quieter, we would,_ Sapling said quietly, for once totally serious.

"Thanks." Scott gasped.

After about half a minute, he had to put his hands over his ears again. Not that it did much, because Matt's screaming seemed to go right into his mind and surround him everywhere.

Damn, sometimes Scott really didn't like having telepathy.

He eventually found a snowy clearing, and saw Matt in the middle of it. The other boy was kneeling, hands gripping his head tightly, still screaming, and snow was flying everywhere. Scott couldn't see his eyes because they were being covered by his hands, but somehow he knew that Matt's eyes would be filled with pain and fear.

As Scott took a step into the clearing, there was a tremendous _CRACK_ that somehow made itself louder than Matt's high-pitched screeches.

 _Move, Scott!_ the past Gatekeepers screamed at him.

Scott threw himself to the side and ended up skidding on the snow several metres away. The place where he'd been standing heaved up and exploded, tree roots flying everywhere like snakes. Several other spots around the clearing did the same thing, and each one was more violent and loud than the last.

"What the hell's going on!?" Scott cried. "Why is he doing this?"

 _We don't know!_ Scar shouted. You _certainly didn't react like this!_

 _Maybe it's because he doesn't have a link with us,_ Flint suggested. _He's gotten used to the dreamworld and now he's suddenly been cut off, maybe he couldn't handle it?_

That was one possibility, but that didn't explain the screaming.

 _There is another thing . . . don't take this the wrong way, Scott,_ Matteo said.

"W-what is it?" Scott asked, ducking as another part of the ground exploded in a hail of dirt, roots and snow.

 _Matt's a lot more powerful than you are,_ Matteo told him. _Even if he isn't as experienced as me, he's still got a lot of power- and it probably took most of our power to bring_ him _back. Maybe that's where your link came from, because we couldn't give enough energy to you. And we . . . ended up giving Matt_ too much _power._

"So you're saying he's gone mad?" Scott demanded. "Then why does it sound like he's in pain?"

 _We don't know what happened, but either way, you have to calm him down somehow!_ Flint called.

"And how do you suggest I do that?" Scott snapped. "There's snow everywhere and I'm pretty sure he's turning it into hail just by flinging it around! And let's not even get started on the exploding dirt!"

 _Just get as close to him as possible!_ Flint told him. _Maybe if we concentrate hard enough, you, me and Sapling can . . . I dunno, put him to sleep or something._

 _Why can't you just try calming him down without doing that?_ Inti asked.

 _You really wanna risk it?_ Flint snapped. _For all we know, that might make it worse!_

"Alright, alright, stop biting each other's heads off . . ." Scott stood up, and almost fell over as another explosion unbalanced him dangerously.

Dammit, what had this done to them? Scott had ended up with a link to the dreamworld, and Matt had ended up going crazy.

Maybe . . . this wasn't a good idea after all.

 _That's it, just get closer . . . a few more feet, you can do it!_ Sapling shouted encouragement.

 _Go Scott!_ Scar cheered him on nervously.

 _I'd prefer it if you could actually put your hands on his head or something, but that may not be an option, so just do your best,_ Flint told him.

The flying snow- which was, indeed, somehow becoming hail while it was being flung around in a massive white tornado- started pelting Scott harder and harder the closer he got to Matt. He put up his arms and tried to shield his face, but his steps were getting slower as it got harder to make his way to Matt.

The screaming wasn't helping matters either.

 _Can't we get him to shut up?_ Scott asked, and then felt guilty right after. It wasn't Matt's fault, after all.

 _Not unless we get into his head, and we're gonna be putting him to sleep instead,_ Flint said.

 _Rhymes,_ Sapling said absently.

Scott took a few more steps, close enough that he could just reach out and his hands would only be a foot away from Matt.

 _Can you get any closer?_ Matteo asked. It was a good thing their voices were inside his head, otherwise Scott may not have heard what he said at all.

 _Maybe . . . Gimme a second . . ._

He tried, and somehow, almost impossibly, he managed to get close enough to Matt. He kneeled down, wincing at the cold and the hail still pelting at him, and reached out.

 _Matt . . .? Can you hear me, Matt?_ Scott tried. _Matt!_

No reaction. By now, Scott had become slightly immune to the screaming, but he could still hear it.

He reached forward and gently pried Matt's hands from his head, and then quickly replaced them with his own- fingers pressing onto his friend's temples. Matt's eyes were squeezed tightly shut, so at least Scott didn't have to bear seeing the smaller boy in pain. Well, more so than already.

 _Matt?_

 _Matt!_ Flint joined in. _Can you hear us?_

 _Hey, Matt, c'mon buddy!_ Sapling cried.

Several seconds passed.

And then Matt's eyes snapped open.

In the two seconds that Scott actually _had_ to be shocked, he knew nothing could have prepared him for this. He'd expected something weird to have happened, but for some reason he just hadn't expected it to have affected Matt physically.

His left eye was totally normal, bright blue and shining with pain and terror.

But it was his right eye that had Scott freezing in place.

The entire eye was just white. There was no colour, nothing but the white part- it was like someone had just decided to erase the pupil and iris from Matt's right eye and had left behind a crackling, blank space of white.

And then the white eye's crackling, which looked slightly like white lighting pouring from his eye, got more frantic and then-

 _ **CRACK**_ _-BANG!_

The white energy that was writhing in his eye suddenly exploded outwards and flung Scott back.

He hit a tree and skidded to the ground, dazed and injured.

 _\- least we know why he's screaming,_ Matteo said.

"Yeah . . . great . . ." Scott managed to cough out.

 _FEAR_ _ **PAIN**_ _NONO_ _ **HELP**_ _FEARPAIN_ _ **NOOOOOOOO**_

"Argh!" Scott bellowed, gripping his ears. "W-what the hell was that!?"

 _I think that was him!_ Flint cried. He sounded like he was in pain as well. They could hear what Scott could hear, so if it hurt this much for him, how much did it hurt for the past Gatekeepers?

"But-"

 _ **HELPHELP**_ _HELPMEPLEASEITHUUUUURTSPAINPAIN_ _ **PAIN**_

Scott winced. "- h-how come I can hear him _now_?" he forced out.

 _You touched him, right? I seem to remember seeing you touch his temples,_ Inti said. _Maybe that opened a connection to him- and, well, to us, since you're connected to us right now._

Well, it made sense . . .

And that just meant that his job was more urgent. Not just because of that seemingly destructive power originating from Matt's right eye, but because he was in a lot of pain. And he was crying for help.

 _ **HELPHELPHELP**_ _PLEASEOHGODHELPHELP_ _ **SCOTT**_ _HELPME_

"Did he just-" Scott broke off, stunned.

 _Even if it was brief, he surely saw you,_ Matteo told him. _And he knows you can help. So he's asking- well, begging- for help. That's what I tried when . . ._

 _Matteo . . ._ Inti murmured.

"I'll try and get close to him again." Scott said.

He wasn't being cruel. He knew the pain Matteo had to endure for an entire year, but he couldn't- wouldn't- deal with that trauma right now. Matt was more important at this moment.

And too late Scott remembered they could hear exactly what he was thinking.

 _. . . It's okay,_ Matteo whispered. _I understand- I'll try and keep a lid on it._

 _If you need to step out, I'll sit with you, my friend,_ Inti offered.

 _I'll be fine._

Scott wanted to apologise, but he didn't have the time.

Instead, he stood up and made a split-second decision. Last time he'd tried to get close, he had walked and pushed his way through.

But this time, he was just gonna run for it. And because he now somehow had a link with Matt, maybe he could try gradually getting the other boy to calm down enough for him to get close again- and this time, successfully put him to sleep.

 _Matt!_ he shouted silently. _Matt, can you hear me?_

Without waiting for an answer, Scott started running.

 _PAINPAIN_ _ **SCOTT?**_ _HELPMEPLEASESCOTTPAINPAIN_

 _I'll help! Flint and Sapling're gonna try too, just please, you need to calm down! At least stop this snow-tornado long enough for me to get close!_

 _CAN'TCAN'THELPPLEASETOOMUCH_ _ **PAIN**_ _PAIN_ _ **TOOMUCHPAIN**_

 _Concentrate!_ Scott yelled, once again flinging his arms up. The snow-tornado pelted him restlessly, forcing him back a few steps, but he carried on anyway.

 _Inti, go and get the Librarian!_ he heard Matteo shout.

 _But-_

 _Just go and get him! Tell him what's happened, explain it as best you can, he'll know what we need!_

 _O-of course, Matteo!_

Why would they need the Librarian?

Scott gave himself a mental shake. He couldn't afford to let himself be distracted, Matt needed help right now.

 _Matt, you can do it, just concentrate!_ he shouted.

 _PAIN_ _ **PAIN**_ _HELPHELP_ _ **HELPME**_ _PLEASENONONO_ _ **RICHARD**_ _IWANT_ _ **RICHARD**_

Scott winced. He wasn't Richard, and he couldn't get the man for Matt- he had no idea where Richard even was.

Matt had once told him that, sometimes, the smell of burning set off visions. Mostly of the future, but sometimes of the past. Richard was one of the few people (the first) who had seen this happen- well, the few who saw and _understood_ it- and knew what to do during and after visions.

Mostly because some of them set Matt off into a huge panic, and Richard had apparently descovered that pulling Matt onto some comfortable surface and hugging the boy to his chest like a big brother or a father would was one of the only ways to calm him down.

But Scott wasn't Richard, he didn't know what to do when Matt was panicking like this.

Sure, he was bigger than Matt and would probably be able to emulate the man, but the hug thing was something that only really worked with Richard.

The vision thing had happened a few times during their time at Professor Chambers' _hacienda_. One time, Richard hadn't been in the house, and Matt was screaming and screaming and the walls had seemed like they wanted to break apart- Matt's doing, by pure accident.

Professor Chambers, and Jamie, Scott and then Pedro, had each tried to do what Richard did. But it didn't work, and Matt just kept screaming. Professor Chambers had eventually called Richard after the fifth failed attempt at calming him down, and it was only when it was Richard who was cuddling him on the sofa that Matt calmed down and finally exhausted himself, going to sleep straight afterwards.

And this wasn't a vision-panic.

So Scott did the next best thing and heaved forward the last few feet, finally kneeling in front of Matt again. He forced Matt's hands off his head- noticing, with some relief, that his eyes were closed again- and put his fingertips back on the boy's temples.

 _Calm down,_ he whispered. It felt slightly wrong to use his power on a friend, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

 _Calm down,_ Flint and Sapling said at the same time.

 _Sleep,_ all three of them told Matt. _Go to sleep._

 _PAINPAINPainpain_ _ **RichardScott**_ _help help me please_ _ **I want Richard**_ _help . . . me . . ._

Matt's mental voice, still filled with so much pain and fear and panic, eventually quietened down to the point where it was just a sluggish repeat of 'Richard' and 'Scott' and 'help me'.

 _Sleep, Matt,_ Scott whispered gently. This time he wasn't using his power, he was just talking.

 **oooo**

He had to carry Matt away from the snowy clearing. With all the noise they'd been making, mainly due to Matt's destructive power (although he had little control over it at the time), Scott was sure someone had heard it and would come to investigate.

But- and this was slightly morbid- he wasn't sure about that because he didn't know how many people there were left in the world right now.

Ten years of living in a literal hell run by the Old Ones and their king had really done a number on the planet Scott called home. Thank god the Gatekeepers had managed to stop them.

Eventually Scott found a large tree with a hollow, and he ducked inside and gently placed Matt on some leaves that looked comfortable enough. That done, he settled down next to his friend and then tore off a piece of his shirt- a light grey colour that wasn't too plain or too flashy- in a strip big enough to make a bandage.

And then, following the Librarian's instructions, Scott cut the palm of his hand with a sharpened branch (the best he could come up with) and dabbed his finger in the blood welling up. He ignored the pain and started to draw the symbol that was a universal sign for the Gatekeepers, a five-pointed star, on the middle of the material.

Once he'd completed the star, Scott put five dots just off each of the star's points and made a circle in the middle of the star. He was careful not to spill any of the blood he was using, and when he'd finished, he drew back and watched the mock-bandage. He then muttered the spell he'd been given.

The blood he'd used to draw with glowed suddenly, and then seemed to harden. When the glow died down, the blood was a light blue colour.

"Is that it? Did I do it?" Scott breathlessly asked. He'd all but forgotten about his still-bleeding hand now.

 _Yes,_ the Librarian said. Scott could tell he was smiling by the tone of his voice. _I could not have done it better myself. You do indeed have a talent for spells, young man._

"I don't think I'm _that_ good . . ."

Sure, he'd gotten interested during his five years in the dreamworld. There hadn't been much else to do, and sometimes Scott had practised with Matt (who wasn't as good as he was, but if Scott read out what to do and the words for some rituals and spells, Matt could remember them pretty well and actually _perform_ them pretty well too).

But it wasn't like he was a witch or something.

 _Nevertheless, tie it around his eye,_ the Librarian ordered. _The bandage will keep that raw power in check and get rid of the pain, and the only downside is-_

"He'll be half-blind." Scott sighed.

 _Matt'll understand,_ Matteo soothed. _Don't worry._

"I hope he does . . ."

Scott gently picked up the mock-bandage and, careful not to tear it or smudge the blue blood (the Librarian had assured him that, once the blood solidified, nothing could tear the strip, but Scott wasn't taking any chances), he started to work on tying it around Matt's right eye.

Once it was on, Scott couldn't help but think that Matt looked like a solider who had lost an eye recently in a war. He'd seen that with the Old Ones' servants, some of them newly de-eyed, with one or both eyes wrapped in bandaged to stop the blood. Not that it did much to help.

But at least Matt still had both eyes and wasn't a servant of the Old Ones. He never would be, thank god for that. And Scott would never fall so deep again.

Not while he was needed.

Matt shifted in his sleep, and then rolled onto his side and curled up. He whimpered, and only stopped when Scott put a gentle hand on his arm.

"You're alright . . ." he whispered. "You're safe now. Whatever that was isn't gonna hurt you anymore, Matt."

Matt's eye opened slightly. His other one probably did too, but now that the mock-bandage was on, Scott couldn't tell.

"Hey." Scott said quietly.

" . . . Scott . . ." Matt squeaked out. He blinked slowly, and then seemed to realise half his sight was missing. "What happened . . . to . . ."

"You went mad." Scott told him. No point trying to sugarcoat it. "Matteo and the others think they used most of their power to bring you back, and some of that power accidently transferred to you."

"W-why . . ." Matt trailed off.

"Because you're a hell of a lot more powerful than I am." Scott grinned at him. "And I can see why, you made a snownado and blew up the ground!"

"Snow . . . wha . . .?"

"Combination of snow and tornado. Sorry, that was Sapling's idea." he sighed.

"How do you-" Matt broke off and coughed.

"Hey, don't push yourself." Scott scolded him gently. "I can hear them, I guess, in my mind. Because most of their power was spent trying to get you back, they could only sort of . . . half send me back. So I've still got a link with the dreamworld, but it's only to the one room. Flint thinks that you sort of went mad because you'd gotten used to the dreamworld, and the sudden cut-off from it made you panic. And that, coupled with that weird power and the pain and everything else, made you lose it completely."

"I didn't . . . hurt anyone, right?" Matt asked.

"No, it's fine. I got pelted with hail a lot, but I'm fine." Scott told him, trying to make light of it.

Matt made a small, concerned sound and curled into himself. Scott had been that look before, in the mirror. He was blaming himself for hurting Scott.

"I'm fine, Matt. It wasn't your fault. You had no control over it." Scott tried to soothe.

" . . . Stop reading . . . mind." Matt murmured.

"I'm not. I just know that expression from looking in the mirror too much."

Matt glanced up and winced slightly. At first Scott thought he was in pain again, that the bandage had somehow broken or something, but then he thought that Matt had, instead, remembered Scott's own guilt.

"Sorry. Forgot." Matt said, confirming it.

"It's alright." Scott smiled. He patted Matt's shoulder. "How're you feeling?"

"Okay . . .?"

Matt was clearly wondering why he was asking.

"We need to get going." Scott explained. "Someone was bound to hear or see that- don't blame yourself- and we can't stick around or else we'll be found."

"Isn't that a good thing? We could ask them to take us to the Gatekeepers." Matt said, sitting up slowly. He sounded a little stronger now, but he still remembered the pain and fear he'd felt before. Scott could see it in his visible eye.

"What if they're worshippers of the Old Ones, though?" Scott asked.

" . . . Oh." Matt blinked. He shook his head slightly, as if trying to clear it.

Scott couldn't help himself- he tapped into Matt's thoughts for a couple of seconds.

 _\- should have thought of that, some leader I am, can't even keep a lid on whatever the hell this is-_

"Stop that." Scott snapped.

Matt jumped and looked up at him.

"You _are_ a good leader, you're just a little . . . unstable right now." Scott winced at his poor choice of words, but he couldn't think of any other way to describe it. "Look, no one expects you to know all the answers right from the start. Right?"

"R-right." Matt muttered.

"So don't worry about it. I'll keep us safe, alright? You don't need to worry. Just focus on getting better." Scott gently told him.

"Alright."

Scott nodded and then stood, surprising Matt. The low ceiling of the tree-hollow didn't allow Scott to stand to his full height, but that was fine with him, because he sort of needed to crouch down anyway.

"What're you doing?" Matt asked. Then he squeaked a little bit when Scott suddenly turned around and held out his hands, looking over his shoulder.

"Get on." he said, gesturing to his back. It was slightly awkward since he was already twisting his hands, but he managed it.

"U-uh . . ."

"No offence, but you look like the faintest breeze could knock you over right now. I'll carry you." Scott explained. "Don't worry, I'm stronger than I look- I used to carry Jamie's fat ass around sometimes."

"He's not fat." Matt said. He was probably frowning at Scott, but even so, he felt the other boy take his hands and- really, really awkwardly because Scott wasn't sure how to pull someone up like this- hoisted himself onto Scott's back.

Matt shifted a little and eventually managed to wrap his legs around Scott's waist, securing himself a little. The he wrapped his arms around Scott's neck, but not tightly because otherwise Scott would have suffocated or something.

Scott, for his part, hooked his hands under Matt's legs to help keep him in place. He stepped out of the hollow and- finally, thank god- straightened up.

"He might not be fat," Scott replied. "But he's definitely heavy. You, on the other hand, probably weigh half of what he does. Which is great 'cus I don't think I can walk and carry someone who weighs almost as much as I do for that long."

"You just called yourself fat." Matt pointed out.

"Muscle. It's muscle." Scott corrected him.

"Sure, whatever you say." Matt smirked. Then he lowered his voice to a whisper. " _Fatass_."

 _Brat,_ Scott thought, grinning to himself.

If Scott wasn't careful he'd be asking Jamie to help him adopt Matt as a little brother or something. No wonder he and Richard got on so well. They were both full of goddamn sass.

 **OOOOOO**

Renny: Well? Was it good or bad? I actually sort of liked it, which might be a first for me, because I got to write that exchange at the end. Oh yeah, and this isn't slash- despite me sort of starting to lean towards Scott/Matt. It's more or less just a brotherly thing, since I sort of have this headcanon that the Five (and Richard) are sort of touchy-feely with each other in a non-romantic and more sibling sort of way.

Matt: Basically, she thinks we're intimate but in a sibling way.

Renny: If anyone actually understood either of our explanations, feel free to give us a better way to explain it. Or I could try again . . . the Five and Richard hug each other and do all sorts of stuff like that, but in a really close sibling-ish way. How about that one?

Matt: . . . I think it does make more sense, yeah.

Renny: There we go. And yes, I've given Scott magic (and Matt too, but mostly Scott) because he needs something more to rely on than telling people to go do one or something. Alright, read and review people!


	3. NEW ACCOUNT

Hey guys. I know this seems kinda sudden, but I'm moving accounts.

The new one is called RennyBanette, and since FF is a bitch for links, you'll either have to type in the name in the search thing or, alternatively, go to this profile page and follow the link there.

This fic will not be posted on my new account. In case you were going to ask.

Anyway, see you guys on my new account!


End file.
